Moving On
by cncgrad02
Summary: Six years... that's how long it takes for the mother/ daughter paradigm to shift... for the better? One shot


"Hey, Mom," seventeen year old Gabriella spoke into the phone.

"_Hi, Honey,"_ Maria responded. _"Are you home?"_ she asked.

"That I am." Maria heard Gabriella's grunting and smiled to herself, imagining her daughter juggling her book bag- which was no doubt stuffed full-, the extra books that she was carrying in her arms, her phone being balanced between her shoulder and her ear, and her purse which was falling off her shoulder and resting in the crook of her elbow. She shook her head at the mental image of her put together daughter and knew that she was frustrated at not being able to get the front door open.

"Stupid key... stupid door..." The sound of Gabriella muttering under her breath brought Maria back to reality from her thoughts.

"_What's the matter?"_

"Can't get my... key... too... much stuff..." she managed to get out in between frustrated grunts.

"_Where's Troy?"_ Maria asked, trying to fight off her laughter.

"He's coming in about thirty minutes. Tonight's their first game of the season and they had to dress- ties, slacks, so on and so forth- so he wanted to go home and change before coming over here."

"_I'm assuming you're going?"_

"Finally!" Gabriella exclaimed loudly causing Maria to pull the phone a few inches from her ear. Gabriella let out a giant sigh of relief as the door finally swung open, allowing her to cross the threshold and toss her book bag and purse on the floor in the foyer. "Sorry, Mom. I didn't mean to yell in your ear."

"_Door finally open?"_

"Yes, ma'am. Anyway, to answer your question... Yes, I am going tonight. I was really hoping to start working on my _Canterbury_ _Tales_ paper, but with it being the first game and all that..."

"_He'll want you there,"_ Maria pointed out. _"You should go and have fun."_

"Thank you, Mom," Gabriella said sweetly. "What time will you be home tonight?"

Maria froze in her desk chair. _How am I going to tell her?_ she thought to herself. _"Um... I actually have a meeting tonight," _she fibbed._ "I, um... I won't be home until late."_

"Okay," Gabriella said, pushing aside the common excuse of her mom working late. She took the phone in her hand, giving her shoulder a break. "Then I guess I'll see you later tonight."

"_Okay, honey. Have fun at the game tonight."_

The mother/ daughter duo said their good-byes and hung up the phone. As Maria turned her chair around to look out the window of her spacious office, she picked up the picture that sat on the bookshelf behind her desk- a picture of an eleven year old Gabriella and her late husband. A picture that was taken just weeks before the horrible monster named Cancer took the life of her beloved Gabriel. Gabriella was the spitting image of her father. So much so that it sometimes broke Maria's heart just to look at her daughter. It had been five long, lonely, and stressful years- six next week. Maria's heart belonged to Gabriel. It always had and it always would. No one would ever be able to take his place. But as the years went on and as Maria and Gabriella adjusted to life without the third member of their little family, Maria started to grow lonely.

_Gabriella had always been an easy child and never had any disciplinary issues, but the months following her father's death were ones of concern for her guidance counselors at school and Maria spent many an afternoon at the school in countless meetings. That particular year was filled with worry and anxiety over the well-being of her daughter and resulted in many long, sleepless nights. Nights in which Maria longed for even just a friend or a companion that she could talk to. _

_That's where John had eventually entered the picture. When the Montez ladies first moved to Albuquerque and Maria started at her new job, John was an associate of the partnering firm that her own firm sometimes worked alongside. Needless to say, a friendship was formed and a friendship was all it was... until two months ago. All of a sudden one day Maria started to see John in a different light. He was a good looking man and he, too, was a single parent of an eleven year old little boy, having lost his own wife to breast cancer three years prior. John and Maria had the same birth month... and that was just a ripple in the pool of similarities for the two of them. _

_After months of tiptoeing around the topic, John finally worked up the courage to ask Maria out to dinner. At first she had declined. Somewhere deep down in her heart, saying 'yes' would feel like she was giving up on Gabriel. Forgetting. Leaving his memory behind. _

_Then, one night as she snuggled deep under the covers in her king size bed- the same bed that she used to share with Gabriel once upon a time- she had a dream. In her dream, she came face to face with her dear husband. In said dream, Gabriel finally convinced Maria that it was time- time for her to step out of her self-imposed uncomfort-zone. He made her realize that moving forward didn't mean that she was forgetting about him; it meant that she was merely moving on with life. "Maria, my dear, I know you love me. But I can't move on; you can," he told her. _

_The dream helped her realize that maybe- just maybe- she did, in fact, still have room in her heart for someone else. When Troy picked Gabriella up for school the next day, she waited until the two left and called the office, informing them that she would be in late. At 10:00 am, when the local Rooms to Go opened, she walked in with a purpose and thirty minutes later walked out with a new queen size bed set to be delivered the next day._

_Of course, Gabriella had questions when she discovered the new bed in her mom's bedroom. However, Maria had only one answer to her teenage daughter's questions: I'll explain it to you one day. _

"Is everything okay, Maria?" Her thoughts were disturbed by the sound of the voice that belonged to her secretary.

"Yeah, Kristy. It's all fine. Thank you. I was just thinking about some stuff going on at home with Gabriella." She gave a small smile in hopes of reassuring her friend. Luckily that smile was enough and Kristy returned the smile and went back to her own desk.

Unfortunately for Maria, _one day_ had arrived sooner than she would have liked.

"Where are your books?" Gabriella asked her boyfriend later that afternoon, who had showed up on the doorstep of her home about twenty minutes after she hung up from her conversation with Maria. He had a big test the next day and with the first game of the season, she knew he wouldn't have time to study so she suggested they study before the game.

"I left it upstairs in your room," he told her. "Why?"

"Troy, how am I going to help you study if your books are in my room?" she asked with raised eyebrows.

"I was hoping we'd study upstairs," he told her as he wrapped his arms around her from behind.

"Troy!" she exclaimed, as she pushed him away gently. "Stop! I'm being serious! This test tomorrow is a big one for you, you know that. Now, go get your books so we can study before you have to leave."

"Fine," he sighed exasperated.

"I don't even know why you signed up for this class anyway. It's not going to help you at all in the future."

"What if this is what I want to do with my future?" he asked pointedly.

"Troy, the only reason CSI is your new passion is because of the shows. You barely made it through Biology before I got here and the only reason you made it through Chemistry last year is because of me and my help. How will you ever make it as a criminal scene investigator for life?"

She rolled her eyes at his shoulder shrug and his response of "you never know; stranger miracles have happened" and turned around to check the cookies that were currently baking in the oven.

Troy walked into Gabriella's room and retrieved his book bag from the chair in the corner of the room where he flung it when he got there about thirty minutes earlier. As he was headed back downstairs, he noticed the open door to Maria's room directly across the hall. Troy paused in the entryway and glanced inside, smiling when he noticed the picture that hung on the wall near the door- a picture of a young Gabriella with her father. Taking one more glance around the room, the bed caught his eye. With a simple shake of his head, Troy turned and headed back downstairs.

"Hey, did you ever find out the mystery of the new bed?" Troy asked about a minute later, as he came back into the kitchen carrying the Forensic Science text book in one hand and his book bag in the other.

"What makes you ask?" Gabriella scrunched her eyebrows together and looked at him with a weird grin as the two waited on the cookies to come out of the oven. He crossed his arms and leaned against the corner of the counter that his girlfriend was sitting on.

"Your mom's bedroom door was open. I caught a glimpse of the bed and can't remember you telling me anything more about it," Troy uncrossed his arms and placed a somewhat protective one on Gabriella's thigh.

"She still hasn't told me," Gabriella told him as she swung her legs back and forth, furrowing her eyebrows in confusion as she thought about Troy's question. "Now that you mention it, it's really odd. One day, she's got the old bed and then the next day, without warning... It's like BAM!" She clapped her hands together in the air for emphasis. "I just don't get her sometimes. Especially these past couple of weeks."

"Why? What's going on?"

"It's hard to explain. She's just..." Gabriella paused and chewed slightly on her lower lip as she searched for the appropriate words. "She's been kind of withdrawn lately," she started, looking at Troy with a slight frown. "It started about two months or so ago. Do you remember that morning we passed that accident on the way to school?" When Troy nodded, she continued. "It all started that morning. She was being really over-protective, like she knew there was gonna be something wrong on the way. Remember? She even had you come in the house to say 'good morning' and get some breakfast even though she knew you had eaten. It's like she was foreshadowing that accident or something. It was just really weird." She paused, lost in thought. "Now that I think about it, it was just a couple of days after that the new bed appeared..."

"Well, it did happen just a few minutes before we would've driven through that intersection. So in a way she did protect us by making me come in," he raised his eyebrows as he thought back to that morning. "Maybe your Dad gave her some little hint that she needed to protect you…and even me, maybe," Troy paused and his voice softened. "The, uh…his death... the anniversary's soon, right?" Troy asked gently, knowing this was a very sensitive subject.

"Yeah," Gabriella said even more softly, looking down at her feet. "Six years next week."

"Maybe, if he did give her some kind of other-worldly, I don't know, advice or whatever…maybe that just freaked her out a little bit. Although I still don't know what a new bed would have to do with anything, but it's possible, right?" He asked just to make his girlfriend think about the big picture instead of dwelling just on the sadness.

Troy pushed himself off the counter and stood directly in front of Gabriella. "Hey?" he said, to get her attention. He placed his fingers under her chin and gently lifted so he could look her in the eyes. He saw the sadness there and wrapped his arms around her, holding her tightly.

"I know he's been gone for a long time, but I miss him, Troy," she whispered into the quietness of the kitchen.

"I know you do. And it's okay. I bet you mom does, too. I'm here for you; both of you if you need me," he told her reassuringly. After a moment of silence in respect to Gabriella's late father, Troy pulled back and looked at her. "Hey, here's a question. Do you want to spend that day being sad and remembering, or do you want me to plan something special for us to help keep you busy so you're not thinking about it?"

"You know, I really don't know. Let me think about it and I'll let you know, okay?" She brought both hands up and placed them on either side of his face, running her thumbs across his cheeks. "But thank you for thinking that. It really means a lot," she told him as she leaned forward and gave him a gentle kiss. "I love you."

He returned the kiss and allowed it to last for a few seconds before slowly pulling away. "You're welcome. I love you."

Their moment was broken by the shrill of the oven timer as it started going off. Gabriella jumped off the counter and grabbed the hot pad, pulling the cookie sheet from the oven.

"Hey, here's another random question," Troy said from behind her as she placed the cookie sheet on the cooling rack.

"What's that?"

"Has your mom dated since?"

"Oh, gosh no! Are you kidding?" Gabriella told him with an emphatic shake of her head.

"Not even once?" he asked, slightly surprised by that news.

Gabriella shook her head once more. "To my knowledge, she's never even talked to anyone in that fashion. Mom thinks that if she even just so much as _talks_ to another man, she's cheating on Dad."

"Huh," he said wistfully. Gabriella looked at Troy and noticed the faraway look on his face.

"Why? Are you interested?" she teased and giggled at the confused look on his face. Troy brought a hand up to rub his chin in thought.

"I'm trying to figure out the right answer to that question. If I say 'Are you crazy? Heck, no' then I get accused of thinking your mom is hideous. If I were to say 'well, your mom is an attractive woman so why not?', then I can get accused of having a thing for your mom. Fight or flight, fight or flight..."

Gabriella giggled at the look on Troy's face as he talked through his internal debate. "You're a mess!" she told him as she playfully pushed him in his shoulder.

"How would you feel?"

"About what? You having a thing for my mom? Pretty freaked out." She smirked, knowing she had him squirming.

"Should I say 'ew' to that? What's the right answer here that won't get me in trouble?" He chuckled when Gabriella smacked him in the arm with a pot holder.

"Okay, seriously! How would I feel about what?" she asked as she reached for the spatula.

"If you mom were to start dating, how would you feel?"

Gabriella's face softened as she pondered Troy's question. She busied herself by using the spatula to scrape the cookies off the cookie sheet and moved them to the cooling rack. After what felt like an hour- which in reality was only two minutes-, she finally spoke up.

"I really don't know," she said softly. "I mean, in a way, it's almost like... like she'll be betraying my dad, even though I know that's not the case at all, but still. I guess... I mean, Daddy would want Mom to be happy and to keep going with life and all, but it's just... It's so weird to think about."

Troy watched as Gabriella got lost in her thoughts and placed a kiss to her temple. "I'll give you a few minutes. I'm going to the bathroom," he whispered and waited until she nodded before he left the room.

Gabriel's anniversary came and went. Both Montez women dealt in their own way- Maria in her private shell and Gabriella with Troy, living her life the way her dad would have wanted on the super sweet and caring date that Troy planned out for them to distract her from the day. The day passed and the two women kept on going, just as they had the five previous years.

In the weeks that followed, Gabriella continued to make comments to Troy about Maria acting different. The daughter really couldn't put a finger on anything in particular, and would only comment to her boyfriend…but she knew there had been some sort of shift in her mother's life. Was it another potential move for them, a job change? Or was it the fact that Gabriella had found Troy and in growing up, perhaps her mother was beginning to let her go?

It was one Friday night in particular two months later that Gabriella discovered the shift and realized it would change the atmosphere in the Montez household forever.

The Friday night away basketball game wasn't out of the ordinary. Troy and Chad had played while Taylor and Gabriella sat in the bleachers and cheered their men to a victory. What was out of the ordinary was the unfamiliar car sitting in Gabriella's driveway when Taylor brought her home.

"Is your mom home?" Taylor asked.

"Yeah. She said she was having a quiet night in while I went to the game," Gabriella answered, leaning forward to get a closer look at the strange car. "The lights are on, so I know she's home. I wonder whose car that is?" she asked, pointing in the direction of the house through the windshield.

The two friends climbed out of the car and headed toward the front entrance. As she pushed open the heavy wooden door , Gabriella paused when the sound of a man's laughter met her ears.

Gabriella shared a look with Taylor and her faced paled. "That's odd," she said, attempting to keep her cool.

"Why is that odd? You're mom has a friend over," Taylor pointed out, clueless to the personal struggle that Gabriella had only really shared with Troy.

Gabriella looked to her feet and mumbled a response of "You wouldn't get it." The door finally opened fully and Gabriella moved to the side, allowing Taylor to walk in first. The laughter grew louder and Gabriella was taken aback by hearing Maria's teenager-ish giggles.

"Okay, forget what I said outside," she said, turning to Taylor and pointing over her shoulder in the direction of the kitchen. "_That_ is what's odd."

The giggling and laughter died down and the girls walked through the living room in the direction of the kitchen. Gabriella stopped in her tracks at the sight that greeted her.

Maria and a man who Gabriella didn't know were standing at the stove, a pot of some sort of sauce cooking. Maria held a glass of wine in one hand and the man had his arms wrapped around her waist. Unknowing that they were being watched, the strange man leaned in and gave Maria a soft peck to her lips. Gabriella watched her mother accept the kiss, press her lips together with a blushing smile, and then reach up with one hand to run her thumb across the stranger's lips.

The moment was broken, however, by the soft yet audible gasp that escaped from Gabriella's mouth. Maria and the man turned to face the doorway and spotted Gabriella and Taylor, watching them. One of the girls had a love-struck look on her face; the other was unaware of the tears that pooled in her eyes until they started making wet tracks down her cheeks.

"Gabriella," Maria broke the silence and took a step closer to her daughter. "Sweetheart, I'd like for you to meet-" She was cut off, however, when Gabriella turned and ran out the door.

"Gabriella?" Taylor called as she turned to follow her friend as the front door slammed behind Gabriella.

"Let her go, Taylor," Maria instructed with a sad tone.

Taylor turned back around and noticed the look of despair on the face of her friend's mother.

"Ms. Montez-"

"I didn't think this through too well. I thought you all would be going out after the game. I didn't mean for her to find out... _this_ way. It's... got to be quite a shock to her." Maria placed a reassuring hand on Taylor's shoulder and Taylor could feel the weight of the moment in her normally gentle touch.

"But she needs... you need to talk to her. We don't know where-"

Maria nodded her head in understanding. "I know where she's going. I'll give her some time to calm down and I'll go talk to her in a little bit."

"Maybe I should go?" the male in the room spoke up.

"John, I'm so sorry," Maria told him.

"Don't be. I totally understand." He gave her a gentle kiss to her cheek and turned his attention to Taylor. ""I'm guessing you're Taylor," he smiled at the dark-skinned young lady. "I hope maybe maybe we can meet again under different circumstances soon." Taylor gave a slight nod and watched as Maria walked John to the door.

"I'll call you, John," Maria said.

"Tonight, please. Talk to her, Maria, and give me a call later. I want to make sure she's alright and you too." John smiled and ran a hand over Maria's cheek before giving her one last kiss on the forehead and walking out the door.

Maria turned and looked at the mixed emotions in the face of the teenager who still stood in the kitchen doorway. Knowing that Gabriella deserved more attention right now than Taylor, the mother-figure was at a slight loss.

"Taylor, you're welcome to stay. I'm going to go try and straighten things out with my daughter."

Taylor found her way out of the loving trance she had wandered into. "I appreciate it, Ms. Montez, but um... I think you and Gabriella may need the evening to be together. I'll call her later."

Maria watched as Taylor left and walked through the living room. She then found a picture of Gabriella and her late husband on the evening of the fifth grade father/daughter dance at Gabriella's elementary school. She picked it up and studied it for a moment, before bringing it close to her heart and holding it there.

"Oh, Gabriel..." she began, looking upward. "I'm trying. I knew this was going too smoothly. I'm so sorry for screwing this up. I've really done a number this time."

After a moment of allowing herself to get lost in her memories, Maria felt a calming sense surround her. Knowing it was reassurance from her late husband, she grabbed her keys and made her way to the garage. She climbed in her van and made the short drive to the other side of the neighborhood. She parked her vehicle in the Bolton's driveway, got out, made her way to the front door, and after a deep breath she rang the bell.

Troy was exhausted after the hard game he and the rest of the Wildcats just played. They won, but it was an undeserved win. They fought hard, the score was back and forth, with both teams being on top at various points through the duration of the game and in the end, East High came out on top by only four points.

When he walked through the door of the garage and entered the kitchen, the sight he saw was an odd one. He was familiar with his mom making hot cocoa, but he also knew that she only did so when one of the members of the Bolton family were upset about something.

"Mom? Who's the hot chocolate for? I know it's not Dad because we won and I've not been here, so it can't be me, either. Are you okay?" he asked as he gave her a kiss to her cheek in greeting.

"Oh, I'm fine, honey. Why don't you carry this into your room and you might find your answer?" Lucille replied as she held the mug of chocolaty goodness topped with whipped cream, caramel sauce, and chocolate chips out to him. She gave her son a look that caused the warning bells to go off in his head. He looked at the cup and then up to his mom, meeting her eyes in a knowing manner.

"Why? What happened?" he asked, knowing exactly who was out of reach behind closed doors just a few yards away from him without having to ask. His girlfriend was the only one who frequented his house that liked caramel on their hot chocolate; all of his other friends just requested theirs to be topped with whipped cream and chocolate chips. "She and Taylor were at the game. Everything was fine. She blew me a kiss and waved as I was leaving the court."

Lucille shrugged sympathetically. "She was in tears when she knocked on the door. Not out of control crying, but crying nonetheless. I couldn't get any information out of her. She just asked if she could wait in your room until you got back. I thought the hot chocolate might help, so..." Lucille raised one shoulder, watching as Troy nodded, knowing exactly what he needed to do.

"Okay, thanks." He took the mug from his mom and walked in the direction of his bedroom door. He had a feeling he knew what he would find even though he wasn't sure why. He took a deep breath and said a silent prayer to help get his thoughts and words in order before he opened the door and walked in.

She was standing in front of the big window on the opposite side of his room with her back to him, holding his stuffed basketball that she gave him the year before. The room was dimly lit, with the only light coming from the desk lamp on the table that served as a desk in the corner of the room. Troy stood and watched her for a minute, wracking his brain trying to figure out what could have happened in the hour since they last saw each other to cause the scene before him. He pushed himself off the door frame and quietly walked to the table, set the hot chocolate down, and continued his way to where she stood, wrapping his arms around her middle from behind and placing a kiss in the mass of curls that adorned the back of her head.

"Did you know that the largest hailstone ever recorded in the U.S. was 17.5 inches around?" she said without turning around to face him.

"What happened?" he asked, keeping his voice soft.

"What makes you think anything happened? You blink over 10,000,000 times a year," she told him, sniffling.

"I know something happened because you only throw out random facts from a Snapple lid when you're upset about something." He tightened his arms around her and leaned down- this time placing a kiss to her temple.

"I do not. Napoleon suffered from a fear of cats."

Troy chuckled silently and Gabriella smacked his arm weakly. "I'm sorry, but that one I actually found to be humorous. I know that whatever happened more than likely isn't funny. I'll be serious now."

"Good, because I need you to be serious. President William Taft weighed over three hundred pounds and once got stuck in the White House bathtub."

Troy's body stiffened slightly as he recognized a bit of her randomness. "Hey, that one I actually knew. I remember Ms. Arvelo telling us that story last year in U.S. History."

Their bubble of peace was shattered when the doorbell sounded throughout the Bolton house. "Great," Gabriella groaned as the tears formed in her eyes once again. "She found me."

"Who found you?"

"Mom," she told him softly with a roll of her eyes. Just then, there was a knock at the bedroom door.

"_Gabriella?" _Maria called from the other side. _"Honey, can we talk?_ _Please?"_

Gabriella huffed and untangled herself from Troy's arms before walking over to the door and yanking it open. "It's a little too late for talking, don't you think, Mom?" she asked as her voice trembled.

Maria took a shocked step back as she stared at her daughter's face. The swollen and red eyes, the plump cheeks, the dry lips... She wasn't used to seeing her daughter like this. "Oh, Sweetie..."

"I'll give you two some time, Ms. Montez."

"Thank you, Troy." Maria offered him a small smile as he passed by, pausing only to press a kiss to Gabriella's cheek. Troy returned the smile to Maria and gently closed the door behind him, leaving the two ladies alone.

"I uh... I guess we need to talk," Maria started. Gabriella walked back to the window and picked the basketball up off the floor, carrying it over to the bed where she sat.

Maria noticed just how comfortable her daughter seemed to be inside the haven of Troy's bedroom. The thought scared her a little and yet made her realize how important Gabriella's relationships really were- relationships with Troy and her friends…and with her.

"The average raindrop falls at seven miles per hour."

"So we've reached the random facts level I see," Maria observed. "I guess I really screwed up, didn't I?"

"For every human being in the world there is approximately one chicken."

"I guess I deserved that one," Maria stated as she stood in front of Gabriella. "Can I sit? I want to try and explain, please?"

"Explain what, Mom?" Gabriella asked, her voice raising a little bit. She scooted farther up the bed toward Troy's pillows then pointed at the foot of the bed where she wanted her mother to sit. She watched as Maria lowered her eyes and looked at her hands that were resting in her lap and scoffed. She turned her eyes so she wouldn't have to see her mom look so guilty and stared into the space in front of her. She licked her lips and swallowed before asking her next question.

"How long have you been seeing him?"

"About two months," Maria said just as softly. "I'm not good at this, Gabriella. This…having a…a…a _boyfriend_…"

"Daddy's anniversary?" Gabriella continued.

"About a week prior to."

The two sat in silence for a moment, Maria silently smacking herself for her most recent Mommy Screw-up and Gabriella absorbing all that she had discovered in the past forty minutes.

"Why didn't you tell me?"

"I have no good reason. I've searched my brain trying to figure that one out, but I honestly don't know." The two sat in silence for another minute and Gabriella's eyes filled with tears once more at her mom's next words.

"Honey, I'm sorry I didn't. Like I said, this is all so new. I've only been involved with one other man in my life, Honey. The thought of telling you about John... it scared me more than you telling me about Troy. I had an advantage with that one; I saw it coming. This is hitting you out of the blue. I'm sorry. I should have told you. You and I... we've had this Gilmore Girl relationship for the past few years and I guess this is the first thing that I was scared to tell you about."

"Why were you scared?" Gabriella whispered, trying to swallow the lump in her throat but failing miserably as the tears started to fall once more.

"I guess... When John and I first started talking, I started to feel like... I can't really explain it but I almost felt like I was cheating on your father."

"That was my first thought when I saw you two in the kitchen a little while ago," Gabriella admitted softly.

Maria turned her head away again and stared at her hands in her lap, not knowing what else to say.

Gabriella took a deep breath and shifted, closing a bit of the distance between her and Maria. She reached out and began to play with a few strands of her mother's hair. "But Mom, Dad's been gone for six years now. You aren't cheating on him. You're learning to live again…and that's okay." She sniffled at the admission of her feelings and chewed softly on her lower lip.

"I know that... now." Maria took a deep breath as she proceeded to tell Gabriella about the dream she had a couple of months previously. "I had a dream. In it, I came face to face with Gabriel." Maria paused as she felt the lump in her own throat growing. She tried to swallow it, but to no avail, so she continued. "He made me realize that living like a hermit was not what he would have wanted. He would have wanted me to live more like you are- going out, making friends, having fun. I guess... I guess it was at that point that I realized..." Maria paused as the tears started to flow. "...that I realized that dating again was not cheating on your father, but merely continuing with _my_ life..." she hesitated slightly, "...and that might include dating someone else."

Maria's eyes met those of her daughter. The looks were similar- two dark haired women who had gotten lost temporarily and were trying to find their way back to the life they had known for the past six years. Gabriella was the first one to break and leaned forward, throwing her arms around her mom's neck.

"I love you, Mom."

"I love you, too, mija. And I'm sorry... I should have told you."

"No, I get it. I'm sorry I overreacted a little bit ago. It was just... kind of a shock, I guess. You should be going out. And if that means meeting another…man," she shrugged, a little unsure and a bit sadly, "and maybe falling in love again, then you deserve that."

"Oh, Sweetheart... Don't worry about over-reacting. You had ever right to." Maria twisted her mouth in thought. "I'd really like to introduce you to John. I think you'd really like him."

"I'd like that, too, I think. But maybe not tonight? Give me a day or two to let this all sink in first?"

"Of course," Maria told her, nodding.

"The original Cinderella was Egyptian and wore fur slippers," Gabriella blurted out. The two looked at each other in silence for a moment, before breaking out into quiet laughter.

"I have a feeling we owe Troy and Lucille an explanation," Maria suggested and Gabriella agreed. The two stood from their position on Troy's bed and Gabriella walked over to the table, picking up her now cold hot chocolate.

"I wonder if I can talk Lucille into making me a new hot chocolate?" she pondered as they exited the bedroom. Troy heard them coming into the kitchen and made his way over to where Gabriella was standing as her mom walked over to Lucille, giving her a friendly hug and letting her know that everything was going to be okay.

"Hey, are you okay?" Troy asked, his voice laced with concern as he tried to focus on his girlfriend but couldn't help glancing toward Maria who was watching them.

Gabriella looked at her mom and then looked up at him. "Yeah," she told him with a smile. The young lady pressed her lips together and gave an innocent look at Troy's mother. "Can I have another hot chocolate, Luce? We can explain – or at least try to. Everything's going to be just fine I think. And with a little more chocolate and caramel it'll be even better!"


End file.
